Education Act 2005

48 Inspection of religious education: England E+W

(1) It is the duty of the governing body of any voluntary or foundation school in England which has been designated under section 69(3) of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 by the Secretary of State as having a religious character to secure that—

(a) any denominational education given to pupils, and

(b) the content of the school's collective worship,

are inspected under this section.

(2) An inspection under this section is to be conducted by a person chosen—

(a) in the case of a voluntary controlled school, by the foundation governors after consultation with any person prescribed for the purposes of this subsection in relation to the religion or religious denomination that is specified in relation to the school under section 69(4) of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, and

(b) in any other case, by the governing body after consultation with any person so prescribed.

(3) Inspections under this section must be carried out at such intervals as may be prescribed.

(4) It is the general duty of a person conducting an inspection under this section—

(a) to report on the quality of the denominational education provided by the school for any pupils to whom denominational education is given by the school, and

(b) to report on the content of the school's collective worship,

and any such person may report on the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils at the school.

(5) A person conducting an inspection under this section may do so with the assistance of such other persons chosen by him as are in his opinion fit and proper persons for carrying out the inspection.

(6) In this section and section 49—

• “collective worship” means collective worship required by section 70 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (c. 31);

• “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Secretary of State.